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Riddick

It’s challenging to write a movie review for an excellent film, because there’s so much to say. There’s so much to digest and analyze. Conversely, when a movie is bad there isn’t much to break down. There aren’t complex plot points to discuss; there aren’t subtle nuances in actor performances. With that being said, I’ll keep my review of Riddick brief!

Vin Diesel (Fast Five) reprises his role as the titular character we first met in 2000’s Pitch Black. Riddick is a bad ass fugitive, blessed (or cursed) with incredible night vision. He must wear special glasses to function in the daylight, and that’s just about all I remember. I’ve seen Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick, but I don’t feel like those movies are required viewing prior to seeing Riddick, because I was still rather lost during the movie. I just felt like I didn’t really “get it.” The movie opens with Riddick near death, having barely survived a furious onslaught of some sort. I think it begins right where The Chronicles of Riddick left off, with Riddick being abandoned and left for dead on a foreign planet. He hobbles to safety, narrowly avoiding wretched sea creatures and assorted beasts along the way. His ultimate goal is to return to his home planet, but we never get a clear sense of how he plans to reach his destination.

Meanwhile, he is being pursued by inter-galactic authorities that want to apprehend him for past crimes (which I can’t recall and aren’t fully explained). Eventually his would-be captors track him down and begin a standoff where each tries to draw the other out. I’ll leave it at that, so I don’t spoil anything about the movie – but really, who cares? The best part of the movie was the horse-dog-jackal puppy that Riddick saved and raised up as a guard dog and pet. There were some cool sci-fi elements, and Vin Diesel is always nice to look at, but that’s it – and that latter aspect is not going to draw in the male viewer, who is the target audience anyway. I don’t know what else to say. Maybe I’m not the target demographic, so this review isn’t fair to the movie. I just wasn’t really feelin’ it. Grade: D+